Ford is suing the company behind a hacker magazine that it claims
pointed a domain name combining an obscene word with the name of
rival General Motors to the main web site of Ford, according to an
Associated Press report.
Ford is bringing a trade mark infringement action in a Detroit
district court against 2600 Enterprises, the publisher of the 2600
magazine and 2600.com web site.
Ford’s argument is that by pointing the domain name
FuckGeneralMotors.com to its site, it is “confusing the public into
believing that somehow Ford has approved… or is somehow involved.”
It continues, “As a result, Ford is inevitably linked not only to
the vulgar, strident criticism of a competitor, but also associated
with the offensive, obscene word that is used in the domain
name.”
The car giant, which is supported in its action by General
Motors, seeks damages for dilution of its trade mark and damage to
its goodwill. Previously, the domain name pointed to General
Motors’ own site, GM.com, until, in October 2000, 2600 Enterprises
complied with a cease-and-desist letter received from General
Motors. At the time of writing, it seems that the domain name no
longer points to Ford’s site.
2600.com is separately being sued by the movie industry for
previously posting the illegal DeCSS code that can be used to break
the anti-copying security in DVDs.
